Piccate di Vitello alla Gabriella

After a successful fifteen-year run as the proprietor of Romeo’s Chianti Restaurant in Beverly Hills, California, Romeo Salta decided to move to New York City, where, in 1950, he opened Mercurio Restaurant at 106 West 52nd Street. In the beginning, lest there be no mistake that the two Saltas were one and the same, he appended “of Hollywood” to his name, but within a very short time, having managed to put Mercurio on the map as a top Manhattan restaurant, he saw fit to quietly drop the suffix.

Mercurio, with its trattoria-like ambience, wasn’t pretentious in any way. Each table was covered with a red-checkered tablecloth and set with a small vase of flowers and a green-glass bottle of mineral water. You might hear “Torna a Surriento” or another popular Italian song playing in the background.

For his part, Salta was a virtuoso host. Patrons who ordered a Caesar salad would soon find Salta at their table, commanding the attention of the entire dining room as he prepared it right in front of their eyes, the New York Times noted, “with flourishes worthy of a vaudeville magician.”

Indeed, Mercurio had a certain magic about it, and throughout the early 1950s the restaurant was a popular hangout for many of New York City’s top models, including a young Grace Kelly, who’d just embarked on her acting career.

Buoyed by his success with Mercurio, Salta began thinking about opening a bigger and grander restaurant, more of a white-tablecloth establishment. This he did in 1953, with the debut of his namesake restaurant on West 56th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. In short order Romeo Salta, one of the first restaurants in New York City to offer elegant Northern Italian cuisine, would become a favorite of celebrities and cosmetics-industry bigwigs.

Juggling the two restaurants apparently didn’t suit Salta, however, and in 1956 he sold Mercurio to restaurateur Frank Giambelli, who later would move it to 53 West 53rd Street. In 1982, with the building slated for demolition, Giambelli decided to close Mercurio and open a new restaurant, Giambelli 50th, at 46 East 50th Street. Mercurio served its last dinner, just ahead of the wrecker’s ball, in 1983.

Both Salta and Giambelli were in business for some years afterward. Salta died in 1998 at age 93; Giambelli died in 2006 at age 90.

Here is the recipe for Piccate di Vitello alla Gabriella as it was served at Mercurio Restaurant.

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Piccate di Vitello alla Gabriella

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Ingredients

• 2 pounds veal scallops (6 scallops), pounded very thin
• Flour seasoned with salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup white wine
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup cooked artichoke hearts, sliced
• 3 tablespoons butter

Instructions

1

Coat veal with flour. Sauté the scallops in hot olive oil for about 2 minutes on each side or until they are just tender. Remove from pan and keep warm.

2

Pour off any oil in the pan and add white wine and lemon juice. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring and scraping up all the brown bits that cling to the pan and cook the sauce until it thickens slightly.

3

Return the scallops to the pan and add mushrooms and artichoke hearts, sautéed in 3 tablespoons butter until browned. Simmer the mixture for 3 minutes and serve immediately.